Underworld - Book 4 - Chapter 23

  
Suffice it to say, even after hours of “making iced tea”, Trevon still wasn’t able to push into the Master Rank. He tried everything from condensing his Ice Magic to going as big as he could. I knew he was annoyed, but it just went to show how different we were. It wasn’t just his magic, but his talents and who knows what else that made it possible for Audrey to surpass him in a single spell even though she had started 5 levels behind. It had only been a day since he’d reached level 99. Some things just took time, I hoped.
That night, I stood with Travis as Clarissa walled him up. Tonight would be different from all other nights since he’d become a werewolf. I’d asked to be walled up with him.
“Good night!” Kylie called as blue and silver speckled rock rose up from the ground, blocking off the entrance to one of the halls of twenty rooms in the Living Quarters. Travis called back. I immediately noticed how her mood had changed. This arrangement didn’t bother her as it once did. She was still spending a lot of time camped outside the entrance, but tonight she was actually going to sleep in her room and leave him to me. At least, that is what she’d said.
“You sure you want to do this?” Travis said.
I spun to see him take a seat on the ground with his back against the wall. He was shirtless with knee high shorts that were between khaki and brown. The rest of his gear he had inventoried. I almost laughed seeing his shorts. Was he trying to fit werewolf stereotypes?
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to let you eat me.” I replied.
“Not that. It gets boring just sitting here all night. I never sleep while transformed and you, well, don’t sleep anyways.”
“Fair point. I’ll just have Clarissa let me out if something comes out.”
“I doubt I’ll have the control to hold myself back.”
“Don’t worry. I have a tail.” With a flick, my current iteration of my tail cracked hard against the stone floor. It was nearly identical to one of my skeletal appendages. The advantage of it had over an appendage was the mana cost. To achieve the exact same result it would cost nearly ten times less. I could also summon more than one tail, so all the benefits of appendages were null and void. The only limit to my tails were that they had to be summoned from my tailbone region. There were some situations where appendages might still be of use.
“Uh. I’ll take your word for it. We have about five minutes before midnight, so feel free to make yourself comfortable. Sorry that there are no chairs. I have a tendency to destroy them when transformed.”
“It’s all good. How’s your leveling?”
“No complaints,” he said, holding out his character sheet for me to see.

Travis

Level: 463
Attributes
Strength: 303
Dexterity: 2,074
Constitution: 364
Intelligence: 104
Wisdom: 102
“Oh wow. You’ve been busy,” I said, whistling. He was one of the highest level bashers we had. There was no wonder really. He’d pulled ahead when fighting with me in the Belly and hadn’t let up since. What was even crazier was that he had the stats of someone that was level 589. “How did you get so many extra stats?”
“They're bonus stats from fighting and training…” He replied.
“I didn’t realize you’d gotten that many. That’s like 126 levels just from working out.”
“Skyler probably has more than I do. He doesn’t stop. Steve, too. He’s quiet about it, but he’s like a real to life ninja. Secretly training as a farmer to go out assassinating at night. Not that he really hunts at night. He usually going during the day actually. Stealth must be nice.”
All of a sudden, Travis tensed up like someone had punched him in the gut.
“It’s happening?” I said.
He nodded that was. Closing his eyes he began to focus on his breathing. “Be ready. I’ll probably attack you once I transform.”
“All you’re going to get is a ‘light’ snack.” I said in reference to my Solar Mage form that I was currently in.
He began to laugh, which immediately seemed to pain him. Turning over onto all fours his breathing deepened. “It’s happening.”
I expected it to be drawn out, but one second hair started to sprout all over his body and the next he was already fully in Werewolf Form. His fur was chestnut brown and not nearly as wild as I remembered him when he’d first transformed. One thing hadn’t changed. The first thing he did once transformed was attack. 
Seeing me, he leapt into the air—aiming for my throat. Before he got a foot off the ground, my tail caught him by the hind leg. Stopping short, he fell, but I held him firm and lifted him up six feet so that he couldn’t get his footing. 
It wasn’t enough to truly secure him. He pushed off the wall with both of his hands to swing in my direction. He was still more than a meter away, but he still snapped at me, showing off some gnarly canines.
“Settle down now. Good boy.” I couldn’t help but to react as if he was a real dog. “Give me some kisses.”
He nipped at me again.
“Fine. No kisses. I’ve already heard from the others that you get snappy at humans, and I can’t exactly test my human form, so we’ll take their word for it. How about we start here for a basis.” Giving him an obnoxious wink, I began to transform. 
I perceived the rest of my body expanding, but as my head began to grow and the horns sprouted out of my head, it was hard to stay attentive to anything else. My Minotaur Form had the most potential—that didn’t make it less awkward. Little eyes. Big head.
Without a moment of hesitation, Travis whipped his head toward me and tried to grab a large bite of steak. My tail kept him back, but it was as I’d thought. In his Werewolf Form, his rage overrode his fear and wisdom with in.
It couldn’t be helped. I didn’t bother cutting mana to my current form but redirected it. Fire Incubus Form started to take shape. It was much more like it. At least now I had the correctly proportioned sided head.
Even then, in a form that exuded a literal aura of power, Travis didn’t budge in his insistence on attacking me. Good. At least that is out of the way.
It was time to see what he’d do when faced with one of his own. Redirecting my mana once again, I started to change. My own Werewolf Form filled me with overflowing energy. The rage was there, but from the beginning I kept it under control.
Staring down my snout at him dangling from the air, I watched him as he finally seemed unsure what to do. A low growl rumbled from his chest. Assuming there was some law of alphas as so often existed in wolves and carried over to their werewolf cousins in the movies, I stared him down.
For over a minute he just watched me while continuing to growl. Eventually, he had had enough of waiting and snapped at me again.
“Travis. Travis…” I said shaking my head. “Let’s try this.”
Advanced Mind Buff leapt from my hand and covered him in white light. He squirmed against it like the light was burning him, but once it took effect, he immediately became still. His eyes narrowed as if he was finally starting to understand what was going on.
“Travis?” I said.
“Elorion.” He replied as if chewing on every syllable. He didn’t seem to like me much at the moment.
“How’s it hanging?”
“Put me down!” He said, baring his teeth.
“That’s really not a good idea. I don’t fancy becoming a chew toy.”
“I, won’t. I won’t bite you. I swear it.”
“Oh. If you promise, then.” I let go, but left my tail hovering just behind him, over his head.
He dropped, easily catching himself on all fours as he hit the ground. His chest was expanding like a powerful balloon with each breath he took.
“How is this going to work, Travis. Do I have to beat you down in order for you to listen to me, or are we going to be able to talk this through.”
He slowly rose to his feet. Rage burned brightly in his eyes, but he didn’t attack. It wasn’t immediate, but his breathing started to slow. “Talk.” Was all he said in response.
“Great,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning back against the wall. “So how are you feeling at this very moment?”
He turned his head to the side like a curious pup. A half crazed one. “Like I want to tear your jugular and lap up your blood.”
“Is that the way to treat a friend?”
“Friend? You’re competition. Either you rule, or I do.”
“Rule what exactly? Do you want to tear Kylie’s jugular, too?”
He blinked repeatedly as if what I asked didn’t compute. Looking down, he turned his head from side to side as if arguing with himself.
“She can hear us. Can’t she?” He said, looking up from his internal debate.
“A little, yes.”
The muscles in his hands began to relax, redirecting his claws to rest naturally as his arms went slack at his sides. Shaking his head to himself, he sounded like himself for the first time. “What am I doing, man? I really wanted to kill you.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s part of the process. You have to master your form in a way I never had to. The good news is that my mind buff is having an obvious positive effect. So, if you continue to increase your Intelligence, and maybe Wisdom, it should help you gain mastery faster.”
He nodded that he understood. “So, what do we do? How can we speed up my transition, or whatever?”
“We’re doing in. Tonight, lets just talk. Let’s see if we can help you stay under control until morning.”
“Just talk? About what?”
“Girls. Tell me about Kylie. She seems to like you well more than you deserve. How’d you pull that off?”
The muscles in his neck twitched as if he was going to take offense. A moment later instead, he let out a whiny chuckle. “I don’t have a clue.”
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I'm doing all this tethered to my phone and using my laptop for the first time. You can probably expect the chapters to be a little less edited this week, sorry to say. Getting everything to work as I'm used to isn't going smoothly, but it's going. 
You can expect another chapter soon. 
Cheers!